Game Night encompasses the positives of its title’s premise: it’s a lot of fun, there’s plenty of laughs, and its full of good friends bonding together. The big difference between a typical game night and here is the film ups the gaming challenge to a whole new level. Max (Jason Bateman) and Annie (Rachel McAdams) are a match made for each other. Both are overzealous enthusiasts for all forms of competitive gaming. The pair met at a trivia game night—simultaneously answering Tinky Winky to the question “Who is the purple Teletubby?”—and immediately fell in love. The couple love hosting game nights, inviting over fellow couple Kevin (Lamorne Morris) and Michelle (Kylie Bunbury) as well as their friend Ryan (Billy Magnussen) and any date he brings along. Max’s competitive mentality, however, has caused issues with his sperm count, making his and Annie’s tries for a baby in vain. Their doctor theorizes the cause of such competitive stress may stem from Max’s more successful brother Brooks (Kyle Chandler)—a guy who gives backhanded comments and has always beaten Max at games.
When Brooks decides to host a murder-mystery game night—an expensive one that’s made to look real—Max and Annie become determined to win no matter what. Yet as the plot would have it, Brooks is abducted by hired goons during the game night. Believing the stunt to be part of the murder mystery, Max and Annie, Kevin and Michelle and Ryan and his date Sarah (Sharon Horgan) proceed to try and solve the mystery and find Brooks, completely oblivious to the dangers they’re throwing themselves into.
Game Night’s main cast is the key to its success. Even before the “murder-mystery” begins Game Night is full of entertaining dialogue and sharp delivery. Bateman and McAdams have great chemistry as an overly competitive couple. They give Max and Annie high team energy, bouncing off each other with great charisma and witty charm. Dense, childish Ryan delivers some of the film’s funniest and, oddly enough, adorable one-liners. For example, when Brooks offers his car up as a prize for the murder-mystery winners, dangling its keys for effect, Ryan dejectedly responds with “only the keys?” Ryan’s reaction and Brooks response to such are both equally hilarious. Kevin and Michelle have an amusing subplot involving obsessing over a past affair despite their current dangerous situation. The couple’s subplot concludes on a humorous and surprisingly sweet note.
An aspect I did not expect from an R-rated black comedy is how heartfelt Game Night gets. There are some genuinely touching scenes between Game Night’s main characters who end up being far more endearing and sympathetic than initially anticipated. By the film’s conclusion, the game night group feel akin to a dysfunctional yet caring family, which is much more than I ever expected from the film.
The film’s presentation of its gaming scenes is genuinely exciting and has an intensity to match Max’s competitive nature. With such cast and energy, Game Night could have possibly worked as a straightforward comedy about people playing games—I’m glad it isn’t, however, as the film’s murder-mystery twist is a blast of entertainment. Highlight scenes include the couples nonchalantly watching Brooks fight his intruders in an intense action sequence—eating finger food while commenting on the scene’s “authenticity”—and Annie pulling out a gun, which she believes to be fake, on the kidnappers—wildly waving it around and pointing it in everyone’s faces, including herself.
Unfortunately, Game Night lands in some cherry pitfalls on its path to Candy Castle. The couples learn too early that the kidnapping is real, shifting the film’s tone to a more action-oriented approach with conventional humor. While the second-half still contains a fair share of sharp black comedy—such as Annie performing some back-alley surgery on Max’s injured arm (using a squeaky toy as a mouth gag and wine for disinfecting the wound)—it becomes far scarcer than before. I can’t help but feel a major missed opportunity in not continuing the couples’s obliviousness for a longer period—allowing for more creativity and far better comedy gold.
The actions scenes that pop up here, however, can get surprisingly imaginative, such as a creative chase sequence—where the couples’s toss around a valuable MacGuffin—performed seemingly in one shot. The film also has some humorous subversions to action clichés, such as a running gag with glass tables being surprisingly firm when slammed upon. Game Night’s finale, however, drags on for far too long, with Max even lampshading such by noting how the murder-mystery’s persistent twists have jumped the shark. Yet despite its rough patches, Game Night still succeeds thanks to its wit, charm, high energy, and genuinely likable cast of characters.